1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head which includes a piezoelectric element having a piezoelectric body layer which is formed of a piezoelectric material and electrodes, and ejects liquid droplets from a nozzle opening, a liquid ejecting apparatus, and the piezoelectric element.
2. Related Art
As a piezoelectric element which is used in a liquid ejecting head, there is a piezoelectric material which presents a function of electrical mechanic transformation, for example, a piezoelectric element which is configured by interposing a piezoelectric body layer which is formed of a crystallized dielectric material between two electrodes. Such a piezoelectric element is mounted on the liquid ejecting head as an actuator unit of, for example, bending and vibrating modes. Here, as a representative example of the liquid ejecting head, for example, there is an ink jet type recording head in which a part of a pressure generation chamber communicating with a nozzle opening which ejects ink droplets is configured using a vibrating plate, the vibrating plate is deformed by the piezoelectric element, ink in the pressure generation chamber is pressurized, and is ejected as ink droplets from the nozzle opening.
In the piezoelectric material which is used as the piezoelectric body layer configuring such a piezoelectric element, high piezoelectric properties are desired, and as the representative example of the piezoelectric material, there is lead zirconate titanate (PZT) (refer to JPA-2001-223404). However, since lead is included in the lead zirconate titanate, a piezoelectric material not including the lead is desired from a viewpoint of environmental problems. Therefore, as the piezoelectric material not including the lead, a bismuth-based piezoelectric material, for example, a piezoelectric element having a bismuth ferric oxide-based (BiFeO3 based) perovskite structure including bismuth and iron is proposed. As a specific example, there is complex oxide which is represented as mixed crystal of BiFeO3 (bismuth ferric oxide) and BaTiO3 (barium titanate) (for example, refer to JP-A-2010-16010 (claim 7, or the like)).
However, the piezoelectric material having the bismuth ferric oxide-based perovskite structure has problems in that cracking easily occurs, and a practical use is difficult compared to a PZT-based material in the related art.
In addition, as a matter of course, such a problem is also present, similarly, even in other liquid ejecting heads which eject liquid droplets other than ink, not only in the ink jet recording head, and in addition, the problem is similarly present in a piezoelectric element which is used for other uses than a liquid ejecting head.